Starting the New Year in Style ∣ Coords

 

At the very beginning of January I had plans to visit my family down south with my dad. Usually when we visit we go to National Trust houses and do other ~aesthetic~ stuff that happens to work really well as a backdrop for lolita, so as usual I decided to pack lolita for the whole time I was there. This coord is the one I wore to travel down, as I wanted something that was comfy and easy to wear while flying and lugging a suitcase about. I was inspired a bit by Exquisite Lass's style and my new Heart E hat~!

Hat - Heart E

Cardigan - Jane Marple

Top - Putumayo

Skirt - Putumayo

Socks - Offbrand

Shoes - Demonia

Unfortunately I managed to get the winter bug that has been going around just in time for this trip so I felt like total shit that day and really for most of the trip lol. Great timing ;;

For my first full day I decided to wear this simple traditional oldschool coord I had planned. I'd recently bought two new blouses, so those were the two I brought with me to wear. I think the square sailor collar works well with this jsk. To make this different from my last coord with this JSK (the one in this blog post), I wore my RHS and rectangle headdress, and rather than my ringlet wig I went with my curly blonde one.  I did end up using the same bag since it's a practical one that goes with pretty much everything and carries a lot, and I couldn't really pack a different bag for each coord.

Also I edited the photos for a sort of soft glowy surreal vibe, since it was such a grey day~

Headdress - Baby the Stars shine Bright

Wig - Maple

Necklace - Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Blouse - Baby the Stars Shine Bright

JSK - Baby the Stars shine Bright

Socks - Metamorphose Temps de Fille

Bag - Metamorphose Temps de Fille

Backpack - Vintage

Shoes - Antaina

Coat - MILK

On this day we didn't have much planned for the daytime, which gave me time to rest and take coord photos. In the evening I had plans to go and see a ballet, Giselle, with my dad, aunt and cousin. I'd never seen a ballet before, but I did have a phase as a teenager where I got pretty obsessed with pointe so I was excited.

We drove to Bristol where we got some dinner before making our way to the Bristol Hippodrome (which was beautiful) to watch the ballet. I enjoyed it wo much! Ballet, especially pointe, is so impressive. One of the male leads had the thickest mega-thighs I've ever seen from all the leaping he does. The costumes were gorgeous, the dancers were excellent, and the orchestra was great too. 

Headdress  -Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Wig - Maple

Blouse - Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Necklace - Jane Marple

Cardigan - Jane Marple

Skirt - Metamorphose Temps de Fille

Socks - Angelic Pretty

Shoes - Demonia

Bag - Metamorophose Temps de Fille

Backpack - Vintage

The following day we went with my grandparents to Wells for lunch before going to Wells Cathedral. Fun fact, Wells is one of smallest cities in the UK because it has a cathedral, which used to be a requirement for a city rather than the population or size. 

On this day I decided to wear this sax and black coord I had planned. I had also recently bought this Jane Marple cardigan as I didn't like how the Innocent World one sat on me, and was excited to wear it. I love it, it's so soft and comfy!

I took lots of photos in the cathedral as it was absolutely gorgeous, and my dad took some candids of me too. There are also some photos I took with my phone on my instagram~

We need more unicorn gobelin lolita pieces

This room in particular (in the pic above and the one below) was so bright compared to the rest of the cathedral! There was someone practicing harp which really added to the atmosphere (here's a vido on my tiktok). Annoyingly, shortly after a family came in with some clearly very restless children who interrupted the harp playing by running around very loudly :/

We were actually supposed to go to some gardens as well, but that ended up being cancelled due to the possibility of rain (it did not rain lol).

On my last full day my dad, aunt and I drove to Montacute House. I'd been there years ago but didn't remember it too well (I love stately homes but they do all start merging together in my memories lol). I was most looking forward to this, and so I saved my favourite outfit for this day as in the past when we've gone to these houses my dad has taken lots of candids without me even asking, so I thought it would be cute.

I wore my other new blouse this day and paired it with my MILK skirt which I love. This blouse is super frilly and cute, it's a little big but I think that adds to the cute frumpiness in this instance. I added to the frumpy frilly vibe with my BTSSB petticoat, peeking bloomers and Meta lacetop socks. Although the skirt is red, the gingham makes it look sort of pink from afar, so I though I would try pairing it with my pink and red MILK tie. I think they work together, maybe since the tie also has red in it.

Parasol - Baby the Stars shine Bright

Headdress - Baby the Stars Shine Bright

Wig - Maple

Tie - MILK

Blouse - Cornet

Skirt - MILK

Petticoat - Baby the Stars shine Bright

Bloomers - Fanplusfriend

Bag - Metamorphose Temps de Fille

Socks - Metamorphose Temps de Fille

Shoes - Antaina

Unfortunately it was very rainy that day, so we didn't spend much time out in the gardens. The house is Elizabethan, I love the architecture so much! I think my favourite room is the one in the photo below (I think it would be a parlour or morning room or something), which as you can see has very 17th or 18th century decor. My other favourite room was the library, which had these amazing windows with stained glass crests, and let the light in so nicely even on an overcast day (some photos further down, it was quite hard to photograph). 

Unfortunately for me, my dad did not take many candids at all, other than the two above. I'm a little sad, but I did get some nice photos so it's not the end of the world or anything. Anyway there are more photos of the house on my instagram~

While I was looking around, a lady came up to me very excitedly and told me how she'd lived in Japan at one point. She told me that my outfit reminded her if Japan. I was already nodding along at this point very happily as she seemed to know what I was wearing. And then she said the dreaded words, "inspired by cosplay"😭. So anyway I sort of awkwardly but politely thanked her and told her I wasn't inspired by cosplay but I was wearing Japanese fashion. She was very nice though!

*edit: Just found this other candid my dad sent me~!

I also made this little video of the week~

Then for Lunar New Year my comm had a meetup. I wanted to wear the RHS boots and bag that had arrived earlier in the month so decided to put together a kuro coord with them. I thought it would be cute to match my Meta bonnet with my bag since both are crazy kuro raschel lace monsters. I needed to make sure I'd stay warm, so I layered a cardigan over my Emily Temple Cute blouse. I don't wear this blouse often as it's really faded, but I think it works in this coord since you only see the sleeves and collar, plus it adds an interesting element with the lace. I could've gone with my black Meta lacetop socks to continue the raschel lace theme, but since the shoes were kind of edgy I decided to go for ripped tights. Not a single shade of black matched but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Bonnet - Metamorphose Temps de Fille

Wig - Maple

Blouse - Emily Temple Cute

Necklace - Jane Marple

Cardigan - Jane Marple

Skirt - Metamorphose Temps de Fille

Bag - La Luice

Shoes - Miho Matsuda

Coat - Maxicimam

We hung out in China Town for a while and watched the dragon, lion and unicorn dance in front of each shop and restaurant for a while. We also saw this adorable corgi dressed as (I think) the unicorn. After a while we headed to the restaurant we had booked and ordered hotpot. I love hotpot a lot (lol that rhymes) and am sad now it's over, so I hope we can have another hotpot meet soon. Unfortunately we only got a group photo after we'd eaten when it was dark and we were all a bit cold lol.

I'm so in love with these shoes. I've wanted some proper FRUiTS tier shoes for a while and these do not disappoint! And wearing them has only shown me how robbed we are of good quality alternative shoes these days. These are so unbelievably comfortable, they fit perfectly, they're in excellent condition despite being the same age as me and they're just so cool! I'm unsure of the price they sold for originally so maybe I'm just comparing super expensive shoes to less expensive ones, but no other shoes I own compare in terms of quality to these. I wish they made 'em like they used to